Non-contrast coronary artery wall and plaque imaging using inversion-recovery prepared steady-state free precession

Background The objective of this study was to investigate whether three-dimensional (3D) single inversion-recovery prepared steady-state free precession (IR-SSFP) could characterize the coronary artery wall. Methods IR-SSFP was scanned on a 1.5-T MR scanner with a five element cardiac coil. One hundred and twenty-one subjects with known or suspected coronary artery disease who had undergone X-ray coronary angiography (XCA) underwent coronary artery wall imaging using IR-SSFP sequences. In each coronary segment, the detection of the coronary wall was categorized, and contrast (signal of plaque minus signal of blood in the aorta divided by the signal of plaque plus signal of blood in the aorta) was calculated. Results 422 of 517 segments (82 %) were successfully visualized, and the detection scores tended to be higher at the proximal coronary artery when compared with other segments of the coronary artery. High contrast (contrast ≥ 0.75) areas were observed in 62 of 218 segments with ≥50 % coronary artery stenosis by XCA but also in 25 of 299 segments without ≥50 % coronary stenosis. Conclusions IR-SSFP provided good visualization of the coronary wall. This approach represents a promising noninvasive strategy for the assessment of the coronary artery wall.